I felt my journey to Everest Kingdom of Nepal, the land of temples and the birth place of Lord Buddha might be suitable for my soul and will awaken some spiritual enlightenment.
Spirit of Nepal
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June 7, 2019
Stories from Gujarat
November 5, 2019STORIES FROM NEPAL
WORLD OF SPIRITS
My mission was…
- to visit a pilgrimage sacred place, the great Buddhanath stupa.
- to attend a Holly Hindu festival.
- to see the consequences of a disaster caused by catastrophic event earthquake Gorkha.
- to get in contact with shamanistic world.
- to experience the funeral traditions on the Holy river.
- to discover the rural area around Kathmandu valley interested in people on the edge of society.
- to meet my dear friends and learn some new photographic tricks from humanitarian travel photographer Mr Gavin Gough and photojournalist Mr Jack Kurtz.
A long flight from Slovenia to Nepal, traveling across time zones, struggling through endless security systems brought some heavy duty jet lag.
When I finally arrived to the capital city- Kathmandu and stepped out of the airport a whole new world opened in front of my eyes.
Unsecured about my chosen destination, I found myself questioning: ‘What on earth am I doing here?
I just stood there, completely mesmerized by the chaos around me.
What a cultural shock!
Dust and pollution, busy traffic, cars, scooters, rickshaws, honking horns, jaywalking pedestrians were blurring my sight.
Kathmandu is the largest city of Nepal and largest metropolis in the Himalayan hill region with a population of around 1 million people.
I needed a few days of adjusting to the environment especially to a difficult and uncomfortable climate.
A labyrinth of narrow alleys gave me a great opportunity to play with the light rays, shadows and my camera.
Suddenly the sound of a noisy traffic receded.
I could finally hear a welcoming sound of greeting Namasté.
Namasté is a way of greeting people. Word breaks down in to three sections.
NAMA means bow, AS means I and TE means you. Literally translated ‘I bow to you’.
A soft chanting “Om Mani Padme Hum” was leading me to a sacred Boudhanath Stupa, the largest and the holiest Tibetan Buddhist temple outside Tibet.
I have arrived, this was the exact place I needed to be.
Boudhanath is located on what was a major trade route between Nepal & Tibet and has been an important place of pilgrimage and meditation, a gateway to heaven serving as a horizon between the earth and sky.
Huge pairs of eyes on the main tower of gigantic Boudhanath stupa are symbolizing the all-seeing ability of Lord Buddha.
I felt like the “The wisdom eyes” were looking at me from every side no mater where I set the camera.
Late at night I have returned and set up my tripod next to a line of monks curiously testing my new camera (at the time) Canon Eos 5D Mk4.
Very soon after I made a couple of HDR long exposure shoots I was already circling clockwise along with devotees chanting the “Om Mani Padme Hum”
as well as spinning the prayer wheels.
The Tibetans believe the shamanistic prayers and mantras will be blown by the wind to spread the good will and compassion into sky and space.
The five colors on prayer flags are representing five elements of Lord Buddha.
Blue symbolizes the sky and space, white symbolizes the air and wind, red symbolizes a fire, green symbolizes water, and yellow symbolizes the earth.
All religious traditions are highly treasured and certainly impossible to overlook.
It is believed Nepal is the only Hindu Kingdom having a happy harmony of Hinduism (comprising 81.3% of the overall population) and Buddhism for they worship deities of both religions.
People seam to live very peacefully and in harmony despite the background of the religious group they belong to and is a prominent factor in Nepali’s everyday life.
The sound of an early morning prayer felt very relaxing, so I was keep on returning back to Boudhanath Stupa in different time periods and every time time ended up praying with devotees, like hypnotized.
Enlightenment ultimately means a release from dukkha, the mental and physical pains of life that keep a person attached to this world.
I was hoping to be spiritually challenged but this was a tough adventure beyond my understanding.
It might have been only one of those crazy travel episodes, or nevertheless a spiritual awakening but there is something about Nepal that changes the perspective of perception.
I have certainly changed the way I feel about this country, the way I feel about the human culture and life itself in general.
“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.” Brandon Sanderson